Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday presented an ambitious and growth-oriented Union Budget, providing major income tax relief to the middle class, giving a boost to agriculture and laying a roadmap for ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.
Tabling the Budget in the Lok Sabha, she highlighted the focus areas to accelerate growth, secure developments, uplift household sentiments and India’s rising middle class, saying, ”we see the next five years as a big opportunity for Sabka Vikas”.
The Budget highlighted that Agriculture, MSME, Investment, and Exports are engines in the journey to ‘Viksit Bharat’ using reforms as fuel, guided by the spirit of inclusivity.
The minister presented the Budget Estimates 2025-26, saying the total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at Rs 34.96 lakh crore and Rs 50.65 lakh crore, respectively.
Furthermore, the gross market borrowings are estimated at ₹ 14.82 lakh crore, and the Capex Expenditure of ₹11.21 lakh crore (3.1% of GDP) earmarked in FY 2025-26
In line with theme of Viksit Bharat, the Finance Minister outlined the broad principles such as Zero-poverty; 100% good quality school education; Access to high-quality, affordable, and comprehensive healthcare; 100% skilled labour with meaningful employment; 70% women in economic activities; and Farmers making our country the ‘food basket of the world’.
The Budget also promised to continue the government’s efforts to accelerate growth, secure inclusive development, invigorate private sector investments, uplift household sentiments, and enhance spending power of India’s rising middle class.
Further proposed development measures focusing on the poor (Garib), Youth, farmers (Annadata) and women (Nari).
The Budget had announced schemes for the agriculture sector like the ‘Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana’, multi-sectoral ‘Rural Prosperity and Resilience’ programme, a 6-year “Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses” among other measures.
For the MSMEs, it announced that the investment and turnover limits for classification of all MSMEs to be enhanced to 2.5 and 2 times respectively, and also customized Credit Cards with ₹ 5 lakh limit for micro enterprises registered on Udyam portal, 10 lakh cards to be issued in the first year.
The budget has also highlighted investments as one of the growth engines and announced 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs to be set up in Government schools in the next 5 years.
A special focus was also made on Bihar by Sitharaman in her speech. Budget has announced greenfield airports in the state, in addition to the expansion of the capacity of Patna airport and a brownfield airport at Bihta.
Further, financial support for the Western Koshi Canal ERM Project in Bihar was also announced.
The budget was also bullish on the export sector announcing an Export Promotion Mission, with sectoral and ministerial targets, driven jointly by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME, and Finance to be set up.
A national framework to be formulated as guidance to states for promoting Global Capability Centres in emerging tier 2 cities, it said.
Significantly, to substantially reduce the taxes of the middle class and leave more money in their hands, the budget announced that no personal income tax payable upto income of Rs 12 lakh.
Further, the budget also announced the removal of seven tariff rates. This is over and above the seven tariff rates removed in the 2023-24 budget. After this, there will be only eight remaining tariff rates including ‘zero’ rate.
For the medical field, the budget announced that 36 lifesaving drugs and medicines will be fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD) while 6 lifesaving medicines to attract concessional customs duty of 5%.